Dispensing ice through the door in a refrigerator may sometimes be desirable to consumers as it enables them to access ice without opening the cabinet door. Currently side-by-side refrigerator-freezers provide this capability by making ice in the freezer compartment, storing it in the freezer compartment or its door and dispensing it through the door. Thus the side-by-side configuration is well-suited for dispensing ice from the door.
Some manufacturers of bottom-mount refrigerator-freezers, a configuration in which the freezer compartment is mounted below the refrigeration or fresh food compartment, have provided an ice-dispenser through the fresh food compartment door. They have accomplished this by bringing cold air to the fresh food compartment from the freezer compartment to make and store ice and dispense the stored ice through the fresh food compartment door. Others have placed a secondary evaporator inside the fresh food compartment to produce and store ice. Such approaches can be problematic in that they use significant space in the fresh food compartment that is highly desired by the customer of bottom-mount refrigerators. Hence, problems exist.
Therefore what is needed is refrigerator with an ice compartment remote from the freezer compartment which requires only limited space in the fresh food compartment.